Urban-rural differences in the association between social activities and depressive symptoms among older adults in China: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Participation in social activities has positive health effects among older adults; however, few studies have investigated the association between social activity and depressive symptoms among Chinese older adults. This study aimed to examine the association between social activities and depressive symptoms among older adults in China regarding urban-rural differences. METHODS: Data were collected from 8255 respondents from the 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Type and frequency of social activities were collected via a questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between social activities and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: In our study, the prevalence of depressive symptoms was lower in urban older adults compared with rural older adults (25.2% vs. 40.7%). After adjustment for all covariates, our results indicated that interacting with friends almost weekly or almost daily (almost weekly: OR = 0.568, 95%CI: 0.337–0.955; almost daily: OR = 0.664, 95%CI: 0.453–0.973) and participating in community organizations almost daily were inversely associated with depressive symptoms among urban older adults (OR = 0.107, 95%CI: 0.012–0.952). Interacting with friends almost daily (OR = 0.847, 95% CI: 0.720–0.996) and participation in hobby groups either almost every week or almost daily were both inversely associated with depressive symptoms among rural older adults (almost weekly: OR = 0.683, 95%CI: 0.518–0.902; almost daily: OR = 0.567, 95%CI: 0.440–0.731). Participating in sports groups almost daily was inversely associated with depressive symptoms among both urban and rural older adults (urban: OR = 0.664, 95%CI: 0.445–0.991; rural: OR = 0.506, 95%CI: 0.366–0.700). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicated that there is a cross-sectional association between participation in social activities and depressive symptoms among Chinese older adults, and the association differed between urban and rural older adults. This implies that participation in social activities may be significant for alleviating depressive symptoms of older adults. When encouraging older adults to participate in social activities, the government should consider urban-rural differences and take effective measures accordingly. Longitudinal studies are needed to examine the causal relationships between social activities and depressive symptoms among older adults. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-021-02541-y.